Telstra and Cisco team to fast-track new productivity tools for Australia

Telstra and Cisco today announced that they are working together to bring new advanced products and services to Australian enterprises and organisations to help them increase productivity and connect with their customers, partners and suppliers around the world.

Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo said the two companies would work through a continued alliance to combine Cisco’s advanced technologies with Telstra’s market leading Next G™ and Telstra Next IP™ networks and fast-track more one-click, one-touch, one-screen solutions to help customers stay ahead of the game.

“We are integrating Cisco’s Unified Communications & Collaboration and Managed Network Service Solutions into Telstra’s world-class networks to provide our customers with the tools they need to innovate and thrive in the global marketplace,” Mr Trujillo said.

Telstra will deliver this to customers as end-to-end fully managed service offerings backed by single service level agreements leaving more time for customers to focus on their own business.

Telstra will extend its already commercialised market-leading TelePresence Managed Service by announcing an early 2009 launch of a fully integrated network based business-to-business TelePresence capability.

Telstra will also release additional and unique managed network capabilities such as WAN optimisation services and end to end managed applications and security services.

Using Cisco technology, these new enhancements will provide our customers with improved reliability so they can concentrate on their business whilst Telstra securely takes care of the network and applications.

Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Cisco and Telstra were committed to delivering uniquely integrated solutions that will change the way Australian’s communicate, collaborate and work.

“Given Telstra’spresence inAustralia, they are well equippedtoprovide real productivity gains and measurable business results for their customers,” Mr Chambers said.

“These capabilities will deliver a tremendous advantage to customers through transformational technology deployment, support, and the ability to innovate and meet core business needs while achieving cost and operational efficiency,” he said.

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About Telstra

Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, with one of the best known brands in the country. Telstra offers a full range of services and compete in all telecommunications markets throughout Australia, providing 9.4 million Australian fixed line and more than 9.3 million mobile services, including 4.4 million 3G services. Telstra also provides access to over 230 countries and territories worldwide and connects Australia to the global market place.

One of Telstra’s major strengths in providing integrated telecommunications services is its vast geographical coverage through both our fixed and mobile network infrastructure. This network and systems infrastructure underpins the carriage and termination of the majority of Australia’s domestic and international voice and data telephony traffic.

Telstra has the largest roll-out of Cisco TelePresence in Australia and continues to deploy units in its offices in Australia and internationally, contributing to reductions in travel expenditure, enhanced collaboration and faster decision making.